


Sparks in the Ashes

by cassandor



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Conversations, Don’t copy to another site, During Canon, F/F, Hoth (Star Wars), POV Jyn Erso, POV Sabine Wren, Very Minor, Yavin 4, girls just wanna have fundamental galactic rights, is a ship a ship if they don't have a Hoth FicTM, minor Cassian Andor/Bodhi Rook - Freeform, very minor but you can basically hear Cassian grumbling off screen 'Jyn stop stealing my bantha!'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-20 06:01:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20670494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassandor/pseuds/cassandor
Summary: "I know you," she blurts. Stares at golden brown eyes. Bright purple hair. It was blue, last time. Blue and green.Jyn is in a dilemma. A chat with an old ally helps.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I caught up on Forces of Destiny and realized that not only did these girls MEET (Season 2, Accidental Allies) they're the SAME AGE. And, of course, there were 0 fics on AO3 for them. *Long sigh*

The din of the War Room fades to an echo as Jyn storms down the corridor. She and Bodhi had been dismissed after they'd given their respective testimonials.

She's still parsing through what happened. Where had that speech come from? She'd spoken more over the War Room table than she had since her arrest a year ago. Hanging around Cassian, the mystics, and surprisingly chatty Bodhi had loosened something inside her. Now that it was free, she couldn't put it back in place.

Focusing on her footsteps and not getting lost in the seemingly endless maze of the rebel base, Jyn isn't paying attention when a blur of orange steps out right in front of her. It's only years of being alone, and Saw's training, that keeps her from crashing right into them.

"Careful!"

Jyn looks up, expecting to see another one of the Rebellion's pilots. Instead, she finds herself staring at Mandalorian armour.

She'd never seen one of those in orange. It was particularly flashy. Even for Mandalorians. Jyn hadn't seen the colour on anyone before, at least, since -

"I know you," she blurts. Stares at golden brown eyes. Bright purple hair. It was blue, last time. Blue and green. But the eyes aren't any less remarkable.

The other woman makes an apologetic face. "I run into a lot of people. Ah, not this literally. But the armour's more recognizable than most faces, sorry. Do I know your name...?"

"Jyn. Jyn Erso," Jyn replies. Her spine tingles as she says it. Reclaims it. When was the last time she'd said her own full name? She hadn't even heard it until Draven spit it out like an accusation. Which it was, in a way. _You're the Imperial engineer's daughter. _The same accusation that filled the eyes of half the people in the room she'd left behind. At least Cassian, Bodhi, Chirrut, Baze - they hadn't looked at her like that. Even Cassian. Especially Cassian.

They understood, even though her father's creation had ruined Jedha right before their eyes. They just wanted her to do something about it.

"I'm new here," Jyn adds, stumbling for the right words. "Well, sort of. I've been on this base before, but a long time ago, with Saw Gerrera." She almost winces as the words leave her mouth, remembering that the Alliance types weren't fans. Blast, even she wasn't a fan after what he'd done to Bodhi. 

The other woman raises an eyebrow. "I've worked with Saw before."

Jyn makes braces herself. "He's-"

"-understandable. Paranoid, but for good reason. And he's right about some things." The other woman waves a hand. "Just not the... creepy _bantha_."

Jyn relaxes. "That's... yes. That sounds about right."

The other woman smiles and stretches out a hand. "By the way, I'm Sabine Wren."

_Sabine._ Jyn repeats the name in her mind as she takes her hand.

"Nice to meet you. Again, I mean. I, erm, I don't know if you remember, but you saved me from a bunch of stormtroopers on Garel City. And I gave you something you lost. Ah, _data_ you lost. I gather it was data the Rebellion needed, now that I think about it." 

"Oh," Sabine drawls. "I remember Garel. I was lucky you helped me out, it would've been a lot messier if you hadn't." She tilts her head. "You're not a loner anymore, I guess, if you're here."

"I don't know. Yet."

"Waiting to sign up?" 

Jyn heaves a breath. "Not really. It's more like I'm waiting for the Rebellion to sign up. We... I... we found out something really, really, bad," she says, skirting the topic and the panic that came with it. "And we want the Rebellion to go get the intel we need to stop it. Or at least give us a chance to stop it. But they say it's too risky. Too early, whatever. But the only option other than doing something about it," she says, echoing Bodhi's words - her father's words! - "is to let the Empire win. _Really_ win." 

Sabine smiles. "You don't sound like you're a loner."

"I guess not," Jyn says in a rush. "There are people counting on us. The whole galaxy is counting on us to at least try to stop the Empire. If we don't even try, then... we're giving everyone a death sentence. But the Council is doing nothing about it. They're too scared!"

"Sounds pretty typical of the Council," Sabine says. 

Jyn sniffs. "Cassian said the same thing."

"Captain Andor? He recruited you?" 

Jyn smiles at Sabine's phrasing. "Pretty much. Have you seen him?"

"I just saw him talking to some pathfinders. Didn't overhear anything, I assume he'll come find you soon enough." Sabine sets her helmet down on a crate beside Jyn, then sits down on it. Jyn stays still for a moment, then Sabine moves over and she follows suit. Jyn's not quite sure where to look or what to say, so she spends a few moments furtively glancing at the designs on Sabine's armour. 

"So, the whole galaxy?" Sabine finally prompts.

Jyn presses her lips together and nods. "It's bad. It's a superweapon." Sabine frowns. "I saw what it could do, I... that's why they're scared."

"Jedha?" Sabine asks softly. Jyn nods. "_Shavit._ 'Net says it was a mining accident. We didn't believe it."

"'Net's a load of bantha." Sabine nods wryly. "It's much worse, which is why the Alliance wants to give up. But that's not fair to everyone who can't fight. We owe it to them to try." And that was it, really. What Cassian had tried to tell her on Eadu. It seemed easier to put things together after facing the brick wall that was the Council. No wonder that Saw was so grumpy, if he had to deal with them all the time. "I just don't know what to do."

Sabine shifts, leaning back against the wall. Looks at Jyn in a way that makes her cheeks burn. "I think you do." 

Jyn presses her lips into a line. "We need to go to Scarif to get the plans out. It's the only way we'l have a fighting chance. If we give up now, there's no hope... still, it's just me. Maybe a handful of others," she adds, thinking of Bodhi and the Guardians, "But... what could we do?" 

Sabine shrugs. "I had the same thing happen to me. We wanted the Rebellion to help us free Lothal, but they couldn't. It was too risky. The odds were against us, even with Alliance help. But we pulled it off. Five of us on a ship." Jyn looks up at her. "Well, and a few other friends who joined us along the way. But not many. And we didn't have all this," she gestures around at the base around them, "to pick from."

Steal a ship. Jyn had contemplated it, earlier, when she though the Alliance wasn't going to leave her alone. But now she's thinking about it for an entirely different reason. The only thing is, she wasn't good enough a pilot to get them through Imperial security, and: "I don't think anyone would help me."

"Why not? There are plenty of people itching for a fight here. Saw-types but less paranoid." Sabine tilts her head. "I know some people who might be willing to help." 

Jyn doesn't know why she says it. But something about Sabine makes her confess. "My father built the superweapon. He's the chief engineer, he knew how to destroy it, he built a flaw, but he was killed. He told us where to get the plans, though. He's a good person, just..." Jyn lets out a shaky breath. "He made the choice he thought was best. For me, I guess. But now I can't shake off his bad name." She tries hard not to look at Sabine.

Sabine's expression doesn't turn accusatory. Interestingly, Jyn only feels warmth.

"I know what that's like."

Jyn sits up, interested.

" I.... I used to be a student at the Imperial Academy." It's Sabine's turn to avoid eye contact. "My family used to be aligned with the Empire. We did what we thought was best for our family, our people. And..." Sabine sighs. "Nobody really knows this, outside of Mandalorian circles and my friends, but I designed a superweapon for them. The Empire. And they used it on my own people."

Jyn's lips part. 

"But we stopped it for good. And my family helped. Even when people wanted me dead because I'd built it." Sabine turns to Jyn and gives her a thin smile. "You're just the _daughter_ of the person who did. You're already better off than I was."

For a few moments, the two girls sit in the silence of their mirrored pasts, listening to the sounds of passerby and ships taking off. _All of this will be for nothing,_ Jyn thinks, _if we don't get those plans._

A voice crackles over the base's announcement system. Sabine picks up her helmet. "I have some babysitting to do. I should... I should be going."

"Thank you." Jyn gets up as Sabine stands. "You didn't have to say anything." 

Sabine shrugs. "It's good to know you're not alone. I was a loner, once. But not anymore."

Out of the corner of Jyn's eye, she can see Bodhi walking towards her, and the Guardians waiting in the distance. "Yeah," she replies, "neither am I." 

Sabine smiles. It sets her eyes alight. "Good luck. We'll be there if you need us." 


	2. Chapter 2

Mandalorian armour holds up well against the elements, but Hoth proves exceptional in its frigid temperatures.

Sabine shivers from inside the armour. At least beskar held up well. She'd heard reports of ships breaking down and machine components snapping after a few days on the new rebel base. There had been a scramble for ice-proof parts and insulation, so it had fallen to the Ghost crew to source the rebel's needs. It was their specialty, after all. 

It had taken longer than expected, though. A pattern of cold-weather gear disappearing from Imperial and private cargo ships would be a red flag for the Empire. Sabine's glad to be back on solid - rock solid - ground for all of five minutes. 

And then the cold began to settle in.

Sabine wasn't a stranger to the ice and snow, but Hoth was something special. Even Zeb, with all his fat and fur, had started shivering until he'd found a parka in his size. He's unpacking the last of the crates, now, ears flattened against his head as he grumbles to some poor pilot - Rook, Sabine remembers - about the weather. 

She's still freezing, though.

Rubbing her arms, Sabine weaves her way through the crowds of personnel jumping to the boxes of cold weather apparel, pushing aside the poor quartermasters trying to bring order to the chaos. She can grab something later - these poor folks have been stuck in the cold for days. She's been here all of fifteen minutes, and a parka on top of armour would look stupid.

But cold doesn't discriminate. 

Her teeth are chattering by the time she makes it to the barracks. Sabine reaches up and pulls up her room assignment. Somewhere around here, she thinks, forehead wrinkling. Then she'll be warm.

As warm as one could get on Hoth.

"Sabine?" 

She looks up at the sound of her name.

"Jyn!" Sabine squeaks on the single syllable. She's glad her voice is modulated somewhat by her helmet. "Good to see you up and about, finally."

Jyn smiles. Her cheeks are flush, the tip of her nose red with the cold, but she looks comfortable. Warm. Cozy. Cute. A list of adjectives Sabine doesn't want to think about.

"Welcome to Hoth." 

Last time Sabine had properly talked to Jyn, she was still in the medbay after Scarif. The thought sends a pang through her chest. She remembers the aftermath, the harrowing experience as the Specters began to realize most of their friends, their comrades, weren't going to make it back home. They'd done their best. Most of the Rebel ground crew had perished, and the fleet had sustained heavy losses. Even the pioneers of Scarif, the Rogue One crew, had met their ends on Scarif's beaches. Except a handful too stubborn to die when galactic salvation was within reach. 

Those kind of losses meant survivors' guilt was as common as beetles on Yavin. Jyn's method of coping, after being one of the first to be dismissed out of medbay, was to stay right in place. She'd parked herself beside Captain Andor's bed, and when she got kicked out, switched to sitting with Bodhi Rook. 

It was one of those nights Sabine had first stumbled upon Jyn, sleeping in a chair with her neck at an angle sure to cause soreness in the morning. She'd gone to get meds for Hera, and wound up chatting with Jyn over poorly made tea. They'd talked through the night, about what, Sabine can't quite remember, but it had started off with grief and twisted thank yous and ended with Sabine carrying something new in her heart. She can't lie and say she'd forgotten about it since then, but the feeling returns with a vengeance as she stops to chat in the corridor of ice. 

"You've changed up your armour," Jyn notes. "Again."

"I did, after Yavin. Felt like I had to." Where moments ago Sabine had been freezing, now she feels stuffy in her armour. Trapped, in a way. But she's glad for the protection it provides, shielding her face from Jyn's, the cold an excuse to keep her helmet on. Granted, she couldn't really blush, but something about the moment was giving her new anxieties. She makes a point of staring at the patterns on the blanket Jyn's folded over her arms instead of looking at her face.

"Are you cold," Jyn asks suddenly. "You aren't wearing anything but your armour."

"I mean, I have all my clothes on under this," Sabine replies, like an idiot. Jyn chuckles, which makes it worth it.

"Right, but you need proper clothes here. The medbay's full of people with frostbite."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. Here, take this." Jyn hands Sabine the blanket.

"Don't you need it?" 

"No, I've got proper clothes on and Cassian has plenty of these."

Sabine gasps. "You stole from Captain Andor?"

"He's used to it by now. He won't even blink if he sees you with it," Jyn says, eyes crinkling. 

"Oh. You two a thing now?" 

Jyn blinks.

Sabine regrets asking it immediately, but either way, the answer will save her a lot of angst and wasted time pining. Pining. Who was she, Kanan? She wasn't pining. She was just.... curious. About her dating pool. There weren't many single young women on base. Rebel duties get boring, sometimes. Obviously. She wraps the blanket around her shoulders and immediately begins to feel the grip of cold on her loosen. Even her aesthetics remained intact. This beskar-cape thing was a good combination.

"Ah-um-no. No. I mean, we're friends. Not-not-"

"Not romantically involved." Sabine nods, as if they're talking about official Rebellion business. Her confidence returns and her voice lowers to a conspiratorial whisper. "Do you want to be?"

"With him or with anyone?" Jyn asks in a similarly hushed tone. For a moment, they're just two girls talking about romantic interests, not women in a war. 

"Uh. Him?"

Jyn shakes her head. "I think he's got a thing with Bodhi. Or he's trying to. Poor man." She licks her lips. "Don't tell either of them I said that."

"I don't really talk to them. Or anyone, really." Sabine mentally smacks her forehead. "Well, I mean, I talk to the other Spectres, and my family on Mandalore, and... and you." She makes a face under her helmet. Karabast, where were her social skills? Jyn didn't seem to mind though, she was actually nodding.

"I've... done my best to... avoid people. After Scarif."

"That's understandable."

Jyn sighs. "I don't know. I haven't really talked to anyone other than Cassian or Bodhi that much. Except for you." She smiles, in a way different from all the others. "So I'm glad you're here now."

Sabine tugs the blanket closer around herself. "Yeah. Yeah, nice seeing you. And thanks for the blanket."

"Oh. Don't worry about it." Jyn seems to retreat from her, like a Loth-cat slinking away. Sabine remembers the look, or thinks she does, from back on Garel. Wanting to catch the other woman, she adds:

"Hoth's a bit more bearable with it." With you, hopefully, Sabine thinks. "I'm glad I ran into you."

Jyn's smile returns and yes, Hoth does feel a little warmer.


End file.
